Getting Paid

A lot has to happen between the time your customer uses their card in your store or on your website and the time that money is ultimately deposited into your bank account. Every business day, that day's activity will be sent to Lightspeed Payments to begin the process (Saturday, Sunday and Monday are sent together). As a general rule of thumb, you can expect to see that money deposited into your account 2 business days later, but any number of circumstances can affect that timeline. Here's a quick overview of the process so you can better understand when to expect your money.

How payments are sent to Lightspeed Payments

On a regular business day, the card payments you accept before that day's cutoff time are sent to Lightspeed Payments in 2 batches: one batch for Card Present transactions and one batch for Card Not Present transactions.

Transaction Type

Definition

Cutoff Time

Card Present

(credit cards and debit-credit)

A transaction made in your store using Lightspeed Retail.

9:00 PM ET

Card Present

(PIN Debit)

A transaction made in your store using a PIN debit card (US Debit).

5:00 PM ET

Card Not Present

A transaction made on your website using Lightspeed eCom.

10:00 PM ET

Those batches are received that night and the process of transferring funds from your customer's bank account to yours begins. Unless you direct these batches to separate accounts, they will be considered a single settlement.

Processing time

The transferring of funds from your customer's bank to yours generally takes about 2 business days, so if a transaction happens on Tuesday, you can expect to see that money in your account on Thursday. No activity happens over the weekend, so Thursday transactions will be deposited into your account on Monday, Friday transactions on Tuesday, and Saturday, Sunday and Monday transactions will all be deposited on Wednesday.

Statutory holidays will, of course, also delay processing.

You can see the current status of a given settlement on the Batch Settlement report. Each settlement will show one of the following statuses:

Paid: The settlement has been processed and the funds have been sent from Lightspeed Payments to your bank.

Pending: The settlement is still being processed.

Error: Something has gone wrong during the processing of your batch. For example, a transaction in that batch may not have been approved.

It is worth noting that the final part of this process, placing the deposit into your account, is conducted by your bank. When a settlement shows the Paid status, your bank has received the funds but may not have processed the deposit into your account yet. Most banks will process this deposit within the 2-business day schedule described above, but there may be exceptions, particularly with smaller banks during periods of high activity. Speak with your bank for more information about their processing timelines or if you see a Paid status in your report with no corresponding deposit in your account.

What is deposited

Payment processors, card providers and banks charge fees for transferring funds. Lightspeed Payments takes care of all of those fees for you. By the time the deposit hits your account, any and all fees have already been deducted, so the money in your account is all yours, free and clear.